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November 27, 2008

Ontario Canada Voter's Lists 1867-1900 ONLINE

Ontario Voter's Lists 1867-1900 are now online, courtesy of Ancestry.com I took a few minutes to search them this morning for my own ancestors, and it's well worth having a look.

Some years have information - name of voter, residence, and whether the individual was an occupant, owner or tenant of the home he was in. Even though it may seem basic, it helps determine where and if an ancestor was living in those years.

Others have residence, description of voter (male or female), whether or not they are eligble as a juror and if they are eligible to vote in special elections or regular. some years include an occupation.

After confederation in 1867 the government began keeping registration lists of eligible voters. Some of the lists are separated according to who is eligible to vote at Municipal elections and who is eligible to vote at Legislative Assembly elections.

Ancestry.com description of this database staes "Women weren’t granted the right to vote until 1918, so there won’t be any women listed in these records." This is incorrect. For example a search using only the first name CATHERINE brought up 526 hits!

Voter registers are valuable records to use as census substitutes, since they will usually contain the names of heads of households and other adults. Because voter registers were published on a fairly consistent basis they are useful for tracking individuals over time and place.

Although the title of this database is ONTARIO Voter's List, I found over 500 names from Montreal Centre, Quebec in the 1867 lists.

6 comments:

Thanks for the heads-up on this database; I've already found several relatives, including my 2nd and 3rd great-grandmothers, listed in their own names (both were widows at the time). Nice to find actual street addresses.

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